ACTU: Turnbull Government trying to resurrect dead TPP

The ACTU has announced that the Turnbull Government will use a 10-day meeting at an undisclosed location in Sydney as an attempt to jump-start negotiations on the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) this weekend.

Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) President Ged Kearney has said, “Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is trying to resurrect a trade deal that has been dead for months, in a shady, underground meeting.”

Negotiators from 11 of the countries involved in the original deal, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, and Singapore, will meet from tomorrow to try to breathe life into the dud deal, without the United States.

The Turnbull Government has kept the location and the agenda of the meeting shrouded in secrecy fuelling concerns that the deal will simply deliver more profits and power to big corporations at the expense of local jobs and the broader community.

“The Australian people have a right to know where the meeting is taking place and what is being discussed, especially given it’s on our home turf.” stated Ms. Kearney.

The ACTU has said that the TPP will undermine Australian democracy, and will allow private companies to use a secretive tribunal to sue Australia if they think their profits are at risk via notorious Investor State Dispute Settlement Clauses (ISDS).